The Three Tuns, Thirsk

The Three Tuns is a hotel in Thirsk, a town in North Yorkshire, in England.

The building may have originally been the dower house of the Bell family, which was built in 1698. In 1740, it was converted into a coaching inn,^[1] and much of the current building dates from this period, with only the core of the rear wing being older.^[2] For many years, it was the town's only coaching inn, but around 1815 much of its business was transferred to the Golden Fleece.^[3] Guests at the hotel have included William Wordsworth, while James Herriot regularly drank in its bar.^[4] The building was grade II listed in 1952.^[2] The hotel and its bar are currently owned by Wetherspoons.^[4]

The hotel is built of colourwashed brick, the ground floor rendered and channelled, with a cornice, a floor band and a hipped slate roof. It has three storeys and seven bays. In the centre is a porch with two columns and an entablature, and the windows are sashes with a round-headed stair window at the rear. The rear wing is in reddish-brown brick with a pantile roof, and has two storeys, a string course and a doorway. Inside is a staircase dating from about 1698, and at its foot, a pair of 18th-century Ionic columns supporting a ceiling beam.^[2][5]